From Llangunllo to Llanbister Rd.

Geoff said:

Thank you Phil and John.

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Early this morning on a typical grey Welsh day a single Class 121 railcar was seen departing from Llangunllo for Titley Junction leaving a solitary passenger in the middle of nowhere.

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Superb.

In a way, also rather reminiscent of Camerton after the canopy had been removed, but if a token passenger service had been retained.

Full of atmosphere.

The station building is absolutely lovely, but I'm even more impressed by the way it fits into the bank and how the path and road take their own course down to platform level. The setting makes the structure even more believable.

What can I say apart from thank you for some very kind comments. I never expected such a simple layout to generate so much interest or to give me so much modelling satisfaction.

I must admit that I overlooked Camerton when planning the building Tim which is unforgivable seeing as I am originally from nearby Mells ! I believe the canopy brackets were a little weak which resulted in some canopy's being cut back to relieve the load on them? Personally I prefer the buildings without the canopy but I doubt the locals did.

To be honest Neil it was touch and go as to whether the building would fit into the bank but after a little realignment of the road and a reduction in the width of the WC everything fitted as intended. It must be said that it was very satisfying to see the picture I had in my minds eye come to life. It's also very satisfying that two of my modelling hero's approve of my modelling.

Anyway here is a colour view looking in the other direction........



Obviously the building will be bedded into the platform surface, etched window frames courtesy of Brassmasters have been sprayed, glazed and are ready to be installed. Doors have yet to be made and once fitted a false floor will be dropped in place. Poster boards and perhaps a Nestles chocolate machine, (who can remember those) will round things off.

Can certainly remember the chocolate machines.

As to the layout. Often and as you proved with Penhydd, simple can be and in the case of LLangunllo, the best.

Edited for some very odd typos.

Geoff said:

What can I say apart from thank you for some very kind comments. I never expected such a simple layout to generate so much interest or to give me so much modelling satisfaction.

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I personally think that well thought out simple layouts can be far more interesting. Just siting watching the trains go by at a leisurely pace....maybe with the occasional shunting is the ideal layout for me

Alan said:

Can certainly remember the chocolate machines.

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If I remember correctly Nestle Crunch was my favourite choice from those machines whilst I was waiting for the next Western to arrive

Phill

Phill Dyson said:

If I remember correctly Nestle Crunch was my favourite choice from those machines whilst I was waiting for the next Western to arrive

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We had chocolate machines in steam day too, y'know! Only problem was you had to wind them up ))).



Actually, you could fix yourself up with chocolate for a full day with a filed down washer and some carefully aimed kicks.

Brian

My favorite bar to come out of those machines ( i hope i can remember correctly ) was a Nestle Aero mint bar. I too was hoping to see a western although my dad was hoping for a peak i dont think he was overly impressed with me spending his money not mine on mint Aero's.......... i however thought it was greatas a 7yr old

Rob

Alan said:

Can certainly remember the chocolate machines.

As to the layout. Often and as you proved with Penhydd, simple can be and in the case of LLangunllo, the best.

Edited for some very odd typos.

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Giving your age away there Alan and come to think of it everyone else who can remember those machines is as well

Simple is OK if you are happy with short trains such as this........



A typical goods train on the Presteigne branch just before withdrawal of the service consisted of a 74XX or a 14XX with nothing more than a couple of opens, a van and brake, now that happens to suit me fine. Substitute the Dean in the above photo for a Pannier and I can add another wagon but that is the limit.

Phill Dyson said:

I personally think that well thought out simple layouts can be far more interesting. Just siting watching the trains go by at a leisurely pace....maybe with the occasional shunting is the ideal layout for me

Phill

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Couldn't agree more Phil, I had previously built branch line termini in the form of St.Ives and Fairford before Penhydd came along and it's down to Iain Rice that I decided to go for a through station this time. I was reading one of his layout design books and came across his opinions of the simple BLT. He mentioned how a passenger train would arrive the loco would run around and depart back to the fiddle yard or wherever. Worse still was the typical autotrain shuttling to and fro, it's boring and he's right you know but it took a long time for the penny to drop.

Operating Llangunllo is far more fun, take the pick up goods in the above photo, it arrives and shunts the yard swapping empties for full wagon loads, there might be a couple of empty milk tanks for the creamery but more often than not they are conveyed by passenger trains. Because there is no loop a one way shunt has to be performed which is far more realistic and true to prototype. So having shunted all the yards on it's journey up the branch the goods returns none stop later in the day. That is when I sit back and watch the train crawl through the scene. Passenger trains arrive from either direction, stop and continue their journeys, milk empties arrive from the direction of Titley Junction being split from their train and shunted down to the creamery. At other times a light engine and brake might arrive to pick loaded tanks up. I can also run specialist vehicles as they are just passing through so special unloading facilities don't have to be modelled. Coaching stock can be more varied as can the passenger trains not to mention parcels traffic.

Trains run to a sequence between modelling jobs and chores, so I wander into the railway room and simply pick up where I left off. Sometimes it might take me a week to work through the sequence just like when operating Penhydd, I find it's tremendously relaxing to operate in that manner.

oldravendale said:

We had chocolate machines in steam day too, y'know! Only problem was you had to wind them up )).

Actually, you could fix yourself up with chocolate for a full day with a filed down washer and some carefully aimed kicks.

Brian

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Very true Brian, the railway staff had the kick down to a fine art ! Two old pence for a platform ticket, three for the chocolate bar if the trick with the washer didn't work, marvellous!

lancer1027 said:

My favorite bar to come out of those machines ( i hope i can remember correctly ) was a Nestle Aero mint bar. I too was hoping to see a western although my dad was hoping for a peak i dont think he was overly impressed with me spending his money not mine on mint Aero's.......... i however thought it was greatas a 7yr old

Rob

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I can't remember those Rob and think they probably appeared later, in my day there were blue and red vending machines the later dispensing plain dark chocolate and the former milk.

On a cold miserable winters day a local passenger train for Kington rolls into Llangunllo. The goods shed has long been demolished and the station is now unmanned. A chalked message on the notice board resting against the wall advises passengers to purchase their tickets on the train...............

Wind the clock back and here we have the recently completed station building..........

That's beautiful Geoff, a work of art

I would love to be there - and looking at your model I really feel that I am

Simon

That is a stunning building Geoff
It is a wonderful scene, whatever you have used for glazing those windows really does the trick.
[Hair splitting]
Are you planning on knocking back the whiteness of the window frames and signs a touch, its just that they seem a little vibrant in the photo when compared to the subtlety of colour in the brickwork?
[/Hair Splitting]
Steve

That's the early morning sun shining on them. It does that in Radnor!!!!!!!!!

Incredibly evocative Geoff, brilliant.

Simple is OK if you are happy with short trains such as this........

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Simple doesn't always have to mean "short" .... Phill's iconic Withercombe garden line is "simple" but runs full-length trains. My own HO loft layout has a freight branch that is "only" three spurs/two points - but spread along 17ft. I realise space constraints dictate train lengths on layouts, but it seems to me that many modellers, when they do get access to more space than they dreamed of, automatically go for more track, in the belief that more track means a more interesting layout by default.
Keeping things restrained, or "simple", even in a large space, is to my mind far more realistic than a "trains everywhere Empire". To be able to convey a sense of open space in what is actually quite a small space, as with Llangunllo here, is another art as well !!!

Simon said:

That's beautiful Geoff, a work of art

I would love to be there - and looking at your model I really feel that I am

Simon

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Cheers Simon,

The whole idea of the layout was to try and capture those carefree days when I was growing up, though the West of England mainline was within easy reach I preferred to spend most of my time beside the local branch, taking in the surrounding countryside. So I'm pleased to read that you would love to be there and feel that you are.

Steve Cook said:

That is a stunning building Geoff
It is a wonderful scene, whatever you have used for glazing those windows really does the trick.
Steve

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Thanks Steve,

The glazing is Laserglaze, PMP had kindly sent me a sample of the glazing for the Airfix Autocoach to try, being impressed with the material I contacted Brian at http://shawplan.wordpress.com/laserglaze/ to see if he could supply me some in plain sheet form and a couple of days later some offcuts arrived in the post. It works a treat, looks like glass and can be easily cut to shape by cutting and snapping like styrene sheet. Suffice to say it is now my first choice for glazing any buildings.

The windows, doors and notice boards will be toned down once a fresh supply of Precision 'weathered wood' enamel arrives. It was rather frustrating to find the old tin had gone off and even more so when I found fresh supplies would have to be ordered. I suppose I could use a different colour but that particular mix gives a lovely faded weathered look when dry brushed over surfaces, I also used it for the stonework mixing slightly different hues as I saw fit.

Alan said:

That's the early morning sun shining on them. It does that in Radnor!!!!!!!!!

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Yeah on a lucky day when it breaks through the cloud

Jordan said:

Simple doesn't always have to mean "short" .... Phill's iconic Withercombe garden line is "simple" but runs full-length trains. My own HO loft layout has a freight branch that is "only" three spurs/two points - but spread along 17ft. I realise space constraints dictate train lengths on layouts, but it seems to me that many modellers, when they do get access to more space than they dreamed of, automatically go for more track, in the belief that more track means a more interesting layout by default.
Keeping things restrained, or "simple", even in a large space, is to my mind far more realistic than a "trains everywhere Empire". To be able to convey a sense of open space in what is actually quite a small space, as with Llangunllo here, is another art as well !!!

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I'm with you there Jordan, it's usually a case of the more space a modeller has the more track he wants. But you only have to look at what Neil is doing with Morfa to see how well the railway in the landscape idea works. Now that is what I call a model of a railway.

Cheers
Geoff

Geoff said:

The glazing is Laserglaze, ....snip....

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Thanks Geoff, it certainly looks superb. Its the kind of finish that might actually get me to crack on with my G1 Autocoach, the supplied perspex with that looks a bit naff in comparison.

The windows, doors and notice boards will be toned down once a fresh supply of Precision 'weathered wood' enamel arrives. It was rather frustrating to find the old tin had gone off and even more so when I found fresh supplies would have to be ordered. I suppose I could use a different colour but that particular mix gives a lovely faded weathered look when dry brushed over surfaces, I also used it for the stonework mixing slightly different hues as I saw fit.

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Something else for me to try, thanks for the tip

Steve

Steve Cook said:

Thanks Geoff, it certainly looks superb. Its the kind of finish that might actually get me to crack on with my G1 Autocoach, the supplied perspex with that looks a bit naff in comparison.

Steve

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Hi Steve.

Have you thought about using glass? I don't know what size you'd need but cover glasses are available in quite a large range of sizes. I used glass for the windows in my Maunsell push pull set and for clarity there's nothing quite like it.

However (why is there always a "however"?) I guess they shoiuld be designed in so that there is a double layer internal sandwich. I made mine in Plasticard inside a brass coach. This allows the glazing just to slide in to place and it's not glued in at all.

Brian

Thanks for the suggestion Brian
I'll give it some thought as I'm in the brass coach group too (although without an interior yet), I just need to overcome my aversion to glass on a garden railway.
Steve

PS - Sorry Geoff, as you were

No problem Steve,

I thought glass would be your first choice in the larger scales. Anyway here is a very cruel enlargement of the front end of my old Airfix autocoach with Laserglazing. Ignore the ill fitting roof and other blemishes as it was very much WIP when this photo was taken. It certainly makes the signal box windows look terrible but then again perhaps our window cleaner has been at work

Having abandoned all plans of modelling New Radnor goods shed due to it's size I turned my attention to William Clarke's building at Portesham, at the moment it's held together with Blu-Tak whilst I check viewing angles and composition of the scene.
Since my last post I've also completed the fencing around the station platform luggage dock and the shells for a few other buildings off scene to the right, the latter being in no fit state to be photographed yet.




Whilst I have been developing the station building and goods shed the other end of the layout has been sadly neglected so I felt a couple of photos might be welcome.



Both the signal box and cottages were put on hold until I knew if the layout was going to work as intended. However now that I am happy with things elsewhere I will shortly be returning to complete this part of the scene. Etched windows are in stock for the cottages and the signal box interior is ready to be fitted out so I've no excuse not to complete both.

Sticking with the black & white theme which I think works so much better for model photography here is this mornings pick up goods leaving Llangunllo. By 1961 goods trains only ran every other day between Kington and Presteigne and seemed to comprise of no more than a couple of opens, a van and the Kington Toad.



...........and here is 1455 returning back down the branch later in the day with just the brake van.